Monday, January 16, 2012

Over the weekend Amy Kaufman from the L.A. Times Hero Complex released an engaging interview with screenwriter Damon Lindelof on the promise of "Prometheus" being epic. Along with the interview was a brand new image of Noomi Rapace in some sort of corridor look at something off camera. The new image ended up stirring up more questions in me than the interview, because this new image clearly features not one but two space jockeys. The Space Jockey has been the one definite link we can all make between 'Prometheus' and 'Alien' but it also has become a constant source of discussion and intrigue. We want to know how and why the Space Jockey links 'Alien' to 'Prometheus'. Below I've put together a few things I have noticed pertaining to the Space Jockeys and how they might play into Ridley Scott's latest scifi.

This first image we've all seen before, it is taken from Ridley Scott's "Alien," and it is the Space Jockey chamber.

The second image is from "Prometheus" and you'll notice it is a very similar chamber from what we've seen in 'Alien' except the head is missing from the Jockey suit. You can see the remains to the back of the head, but the rest is obviously gone. You can also see a figure off to the right, but speculation on him should remain in a completely different post.

The third image appears to be back on the ship and shows Noomi Rapace and others observing what looks to be the removed head from the Space Jockey suit from the previous image. This again, is mere speculation, but it looks as though the team of explorers have removed the head and taken it back to do further research.

Ryan Turek over at Shock Till You Drop recently posted a link to an interview with Ridley Scott and Filmophilia where he extrapolated further on the Space Jockey. "It’s fairly pure [Alien]. And this one [Prometheus] does actually raise all kinds of other questions, because if someone could, a being, could be as monstrously clever to create something like we experienced in the very first one [Alien] – I always figured it’s a weapon, and I always figured that [the Space Jockey ship in the first Alien] was a carrier of weapons. Therefore, who is that, inside that suit? That wasn’t a skeleton, that was a suit. And if you open up the suit, what do you get inside it? And why were they going, where were they going?" In brevity, Ridley sounds like he's questioning what happens when you look inside the suit. He's clearly talking about the Space Jockey suit and the images above lead me to believe that question will be fully explored throughout Prometheus.

Piecing things together it seems that the Space Jockey's are pilots who are assigned to expedite the "weapons" Ridley Scott referred to in the Filmophilia interview. The imagery of the pods seen in the Promethus trailer could also add to this theory, not to mention a screen capture of what looks to be the Space Jockey chamber fully operational. A room that looks to deliver a digital map-out to the galaxy.

All of this is just speculation and only a piece of what Prometheus looks to have in store for us. Much of this is a curse, I wish I never watched the trailer in the first place. My original intention was to remain dark on this film until opening day. Now I will continue to over think and piece together the contents of this film with each new piece of production that leaks out. See what one new image of Noomi Rapace in a corridor did to me? All of this analysis and linking because of one new image featuring those damn Space Jockeys! Can this Ridley Scott scifi get here any quicker?!